


New Living Room Furniture (And Other Life Changes)

by SummerFrost



Series: Coffee Shop AU [4]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Moving In Together, this is my shortest tag list ever lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 15:06:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12534508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerFrost/pseuds/SummerFrost
Summary: Jack knows that letting go of things can be hard for Kent, even if it's to start something better. So he helps make it a little easier.





	New Living Room Furniture (And Other Life Changes)

**Author's Note:**

> Remember how like seven months ago I said I was going to write three follower milestone prompts and then I only wrote two of them?
> 
> Yeah, me neither.
> 
> Enjoy the adorable ot3 fluff <3

“I hate your apartment,” Bitty says. Jack looks up from his book even though he’s pretty sure Bitty wasn’t talking to him. Since they’re not in Jack’s apartment.

“Rude,” Kent answers, and pokes Bitty in the cheek. They’re tangled up together on the couch watching one of their reality TV shows that Jack still can’t really tell apart, even though it’s been almost three months. Jack will probably join them, in a second, but he really does want to get through this chapter and he knows if he goes over there they’ll distract him.

Well, more than they already are.

“I just—the kitchen is so  _ small  _ honey and I really wish you would’ve let Justin and Adam take the couch—”

“How dare you, this couch is our  _ child _ —”

“—and it’s so far away from the university for Jack,” Bitty continues, ignoring Kent’s interruption. “And really, don’t you think this place might be a  _ little _ cursed?”

Kent groans and sits up straighter on the aforementioned couch, which, privately, Jack agrees could have gone to Boston. “I literally cannot tell if you’re fucking with me. Is he fucking with me, Jack?”

Jack shrugs. “I never know when anyone is fucking with me.”

“I am  _ not.  _ This apartment is cursed and I will not move here,” Bitty insists, his tone turning a little petulant. His arms are crossed and everything and it’s adorable.

“Wait,” Jack says, “I think I missed something.”

It’s not an uncommon feeling. Bitty and Kent tend to say a lot of things very quickly in tangled strings of conversation; Jack once witnessed them passive-aggressively fight over whose turn it was to clean the litterbox, decide where to order dinner, and agree on a joint birthday present for Justin all at once.

Kent takes pity and summarizes, “I think when we move in together it should be here, ‘cause my apartment’s baller, but Bitty says it’s cursed ‘cause two weeks after I moved here we broke up.”

Jack files away the second half of that sentence for later consideration. “You’re moving in together?”

“Jack, sweetheart,” Bitty says gently, “’we’ as in all of us.”

There’s a brief pause, which Jack fills by closing his book and setting it to the side. “Oh.”

“Only if you want,” Bitty adds quickly. “I mean, obviously but, goodness, we’d love to live with you one day, sweetheart. Lord knows we spend enough time together for it and we—you know we’re really in this, right?”

Jack wonders if they’ve talked about this before or if the idea sort of just materialized, like things tend to do around Bitty and Kent. They’re impulsive like that. Not necessarily insincere, but.

“Can I think about it?” Jack asks, just in case.

Bitty says, “Sweetheart, of course!” at the same time Kent goes, “Yeah, definitely,” and they both do that thing where they look at each other and make hearteyes.

Jack…really loves them both a lot. So he tells them.

Which gets him a simultaneous, “We love you too, honey,” from Bitty and, “Love you too, babe,” from Kent, and they both laugh and look at each other all over again.

It’s all been said before, a while ago, but Jack’s not sure he’ll ever really get used to hearing it. It’s been—well, it’s been a really long time since he’s heard it from anyone besides his parents. Well, and Shitty, but that doesn’t really feel too different from when his parents say it.

“Jack,” Kent says, pulling Jack back out of his head a little. “Come over here. I miss you.”

Jack rolls his eyes fondly and smiles, teases, “I’m right here,” even as he climbs out of his armchair and settles with them on the couch.

Kent climbs into his lap and kisses his cheek, the kind of softness Jack is always surprised to receive from him, somehow, and is never sure why. Bitty stays sprawled out, head propped up against Jack’s thigh, legs hooked over the far armrest, hand stroking absentmindedly at Kent’s ankle dangling near his face.

Jack could have this every day. And it’s—kind of weird, because of course he can think of plenty of reasons why it would be a bad idea—he gets cranky and likes his space, and Bitty wakes up at 4 AM almost daily and sings in the shower, and they’re so in love with each other Jack still has a hard time believing they could possibly love him nearly as much and one day they’ll probably realize they don’t, and then—

Et cetera, et cetera.

But. At the same time, those things feel farther away than they normally do. In a way he frequently can’t, Jack finds himself thinking about the good parts instead—cuddling on the couch or in bed, waking up to Bitty’s voice and being the cause of the surprised grin on his face when he joins him in the shower. The thought that maybe—maybe this can just  _ be  _ good and he can have it.

He’s still not sure. He still won’t say it today, or tomorrow probably, and he knows they won’t bring it up again until he’s ready (which is another thing he’s so grateful for about them). But it stays in the back of his mind, one of those little warm things that nudges him in a certain direction and isn’t usually wrong.

 

~*~

 

It doesn’t come up again for two months, until one morning Kent is in his kitchen in half of a suit, tie undone and his untucked shirt almost covering the pair of briefs he’s wearing that probably used to be Bitty’s, and mostly looking like he’ll murder anyone who tries to talk to him, and Jack looks at him and thinks,  _ Oh. _

“When’s your lease end?” Jack asks. Just like that.

Kent’s eyes go wide. He presses his coffee mug to his face and takes a big gulp. “Uh, this August,” he says. “I haven’t re-signed yet.”

“Good,” Jack says. He borrows Kent’s mug and takes a drink. Sometimes when he sleeps at his own place, he puts his coffee in the fridge before he drinks it and it feels more like home. “I don’t want to live in a cursed apartment either.”

Kent’s face is a really adorable mix of indignant and excited, and Jack loves him so much.

 

~*~

 

Bitty cries a little bit when they tell him.

 

~*~

 

“You are  _ not  _ walking through that door!” Bitty says, laughing, but also Jack thinks he might kill them.

It’s hard to interpret the tone of voice when he’s holding up half a couch.

“Babe,” Kent says. “Justin and Adam didn’t  _ want  _ it—”

“Because they’re  _ sane _ —”

“—and we can’t just throw it away!” Kent finishes, grunting a little as he readjusts his grip.

Jack shoots Bitty a pleading look and he sighs, begrudgingly stepping out of the way so they can put the couch down in the mostly empty living room. It was getting heavy.

“We should absolutely throw it away,” Bitty counters. His arms are crossed over his chest. “It’s old and gross and we have  _ three  _ incomes, Kent, we can afford—”

“How does this not  _ matter  _ to you?” Kent snaps, and—oh. Jack had thought Kent was mostly kidding about the couch, or maybe it was a money thing, but he seems pretty upset now, actually, and his eyes are kind of wet.

Bitty notices too. He chews on his bottom lip and touches Kent’s arm. “Baby,” he says softly, guiding Kent onto the couch with him. “Talk to me.”

“We—we fell in love on this couch,” Kent pleads. He’d been staring at his hands but he looks up at Bitty when he says it. “It’s been through everything with us and—and we can’t just—”

His voice seems to cut out on him, but Bitty pulls him into a hug and whispers, “Oh, honey,” and doesn’t say anything else either.

Jack sits down on the ground and waits for someone to talk. He feels awkward and he thinks maybe he should leave, but he doesn’t know where he’d go, and then Kent’s hand is reaching for his shoulder so he takes Kent’s hand in his instead of going anywhere.

Eventually Kent says, “Sorry, I know it’s stupid—”

“It’s not,” Bitty tells him. “I’m sorry I didn’t think—”

“I know you’re not going anywhere.” Kent squeezes Jack’s hand. “Either of you. I just—sometimes it’s—I mean. I dunno. I can’t, like, whatever. You know?”

“Yeah,” Jack says. He thinks he does. “It’s hard to let things change.”

Kent tugs on Jack’s hand, so Jack climbs up onto the couch with them and presses into Kent’s side.

Bitty decides, “We should keep it. It’s important and you’re right—”

“No, we can—” Kent hesitates. “I can let it just be a couch. It’s—we gotta get rid of it eventually and, you know, we can—it’s okay.”

“Are you sure?” Jack asks.

Kent laughs. “Yeah, no, I’m good. Uh. I will be.”

“We can donate it,” Bitty suggests, carding his fingers through Kent’s hair. “Instead of dumping it. But only if you’re sure. I bet you some college kids would love this couch, honey.”

Kent smiles, shakily but there, and Bitty continues, “Maybe someone else gets to fall in love on it now.”

“I, uh—I think.” Kent shifts and his smile turns less wobbly. “I think that sounds really great.”

Bitty kisses his forehead and looks up at Jack over his shoulders, his eyes warm but a little sad. Jack smiles back at him and starts to plan.

 

~*~

 

“You sure you don’t wanna come?” Kent asks as they put the tailgate back up.

Jack nods. He catches Bitty’s eye and smiles surreptitiously. “Ah, yeah, you guys should go alone. Besides, uh, I should be here in case the furniture gets here.”

Bitty smiles back at him and tugs Kent towards the truck by his elbow. “C’mon, hun, let’s go.”

Kent rolls his eyes fondly, patting the old couch in the bed of Jack’s truck before he lets Bitty shoo him into the cab.

Jack watches them drive off with a wave, craning his neck to make sure they’ve turned down the street, and then jogs to Bitty’s car.

 

~*~

 

Jack manages to get everything set up and shoo Derek and Will out the door just in time; he thinks it’s maybe five minutes later that he hears Kent and Bitty’s voices in the hallway outside the apartment.

He has no idea what to do with his hands. Or his body. Or his face. Should he sit on the couch? No, that’s weird. He should stand next to it but casually, probably, because this is a big thing but not a Big Thing with capitalized letters like Bitty types with, sometimes, he thinks. Maybe, but now the door’s opening so Jack shoves his hands in his pockets and hopes he looks normal.

Kent’s eyes are a little red because he’s probably been crying a little, but he’s also smiling. He stops in the entryway with one shoe off when he sees everything.

“Uh,” Kent says slowly. “Why is the shop’s couch in our living room?”

Bitty wraps his arms around Kent from behind, propping his chin up on his shoulder. “It’s our couch, baby.”

“Surprise,” Jack says.

Kent looks between the two of them and then runs a hand through his hair. “Uh, what?”

“I got a new one for the shop,” Jack tells him. “And brought this one here.”

Bitty nudges Kent forward and he walks automatically, staring at the couch with unfocused eyes, and repeats, “What?”

Jack sits down on the couch and tugs Kent to him, letting Kent curl half in his lap and lean up against Bitty, too. He runs a hand through Kenny’s hair like he knows he likes and lets Bitty talk now.

“We fell in love on this couch, too,” Bitty says, and smiles as he presses a kiss to Kent’s temple. “Together. And we just thought—it’s okay to wanna hold onto that feeling, honey.”

Kent laughs wetly and nuzzles closer to Jack, slipping an arm around his waist to cuddle against him. “I…I really fucking love you guys. Thank you.”

“We love you too,” Jack promises. He rests his cheek on top of Kent’s head and smiles at Bitty, who leans over and kisses the tip of Jack’s nose, making his heart flutter.

“However and wherever,” Bitty adds, and Jack knows that Kent believes them. 

**Author's Note:**

> I love PB&J with my entire trash heart! Come scream with me about them on [Tumblr <3](http://www.yoursummerfrost.tumblr.com)


End file.
